No need to try to impose civility in the House of Commons

It was all going so well until the chieftain o’ the pudding race was hurled unceremoniously to the floor.

The Speaker of the House of Commons’ annual Burns Supper will be long remembered by those who were there for the Great Haggis Tragedy.

The night is designed to bring together parliamentarians from all parties to enjoy fellowship and relief from the relentless partisanship of modern politics.

As Burns might have put it, the assembled MPs were glorious and over all the ills of life victorious. Until, that is, Rodger Cuzner, the Liberal MP from the Celtic bastion of Cape Breton-Canso, dropped the haggis.

He and NDP MP Paul Dewar had been designated to carry the pudding into the Reading Room, behind the piper, Conservative MP Chungsen Leung.

Another Tory, Ed Holder, addressed the haggis with enthusiasm and it was when it was about to be served that Mr. Cuzner’s dereliction of duty occurred.

The loud splat, as Scotland’s national dish spilled all over the floor of the room where the Prime Minister had addressed his caucus earlier that day, was followed by concerned silence, as the crowd digested the fact they’d have to eat it anyway.

“There’s a haggis down,” shouted Liberal Caroline Bennett. Kirsty Duncan, a keen Highland dancer, said she’d never seen anyone drop the haggis in the hundreds of Burns Suppers she’d attended.

Jason Kenney, the Immigration Minister, relayed the information to the outside world with some relish, via Twitter. “Note to Cape Breton voters: Cuzner can’t handle the haggis. He’s not worth the risk.”

The whole farrago was commemorated by Mr. Holder in verse in his members’ statement in the House the next day. “There are strange things done in the midnight sun/ A lesson the Speaker learns:/ Don’t give this mission to the opposition/When we honour Robbie Burns.”

I regale you with this tale of woe, in part because it was bloody funny, but mainly to dispel the notion that members of Parliament from different parties can’t get along.

Nathan Cullen, the NDP House leader, has started a petition called the Civility Project aimed at imposing decorum in the House of Commons. He wants MPs who heckle to be suspended without pay by the Speaker.

Thankfully, the project is doomed. A special advisory committee that looked into the same subject produced a report that has been gathering dust since it was completed in 1992. Back in 2006, NDP MP Joe Comartin, now deputy Speaker, revived the report and sought the adoption of new powers for the Speaker, such as escalating penalties for repeat offenders. Nothing came of that either.

And that’s a good thing. The House of Commons was never intended to resemble a lending library. We take our traditions from Westminster and Winston Churchill insisted that, when the Commons was rebuilt after the war, it should be along pre-war lines, with only enough seating for two-thirds of the MPs to ensure it retained its rowdy atmosphere.

Civility in the Canadian House has improved considerably since the 1880s, when MPs, over-served by the saloon that used to operate beneath the chamber, set off firecrackers in the House. Even since the days of minority parliaments, there has been less nastiness.

‘Politics should be fun – politicians have no right to be pompous or po-faced. The moment politics become dull, democracy is in danger’

But God forbid decorum is ever imposed on the House. As the English Conservative, Lord Hailsham, once said: “Politics should be fun – politicians have no right to be pompous or po-faced. The moment politics become dull, democracy is in danger.”

The place is uproarious because the people who work there are passionate and committed. They don’t hate each other. Well some of them do. But most avoid “righteous mind” syndrome, where they have a righteous certainty that those who see things differently are wrong, while being blind to their own biases.

During Question Period Thursday, there was a incident far more in keeping with the true collegiality of the House than the recent Peter Van Loan-Tom Mulcair dust-up. Peggy Nash, the NDP finance critic, rose and wished Jim Flaherty, the Finance Minister, a speedy recovery from his recently disclosed skin disease. The entire House rose in a standing ovation, as they would for any one of their number who was facing a similar challenge.

As goodwill emanated throughout the parliamentary precinct, the only genuine rancour was directed at the Cape Breton Haggis Hurler, Rodger Cuzner.

A photo caption in an earlier version of this article incorrectly stated Larry Miller had dropped the haggis. It was in fact, Rodger Cuzner, as the story made clear. The mistake was made by an online production editor. The Post regrets the error.

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